In the state-of-the-art SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) devices, the base material is epitaxially deposited by means of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) as front-end-of-line (FEOL) films relatively early in the manufacturing process. This offers the possibility of tailoring specific base profiles in both alloy and dopant and allows pseudomorphic growth of alloys of silicon with germanium and carbon, which can be used to improve performance of the HBT devices.
Specifically, incorporation of substitutional germanium into the crystal lattice of the silicon creates a compressive strain in the material, because the Ge atom requires a larger atomic separation. It also reduces the bandgap of the material. In some SiGe-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) devices, the Ge content increases abruptly to a constant value across the entire base region (single rectangular profile) or parts thereof (stepped profile). In a “graded” SiGe HBT device, the Ge content in the base region is not a constant, but instead increases from a low Ge concentration near the emitter-base junction to a high Ge concentration deeper into the base region, thus creating a drift field with decreasing bandgap in the direction of the electron flow. The electrons injected from the emitter of the HBT device face a reduced injection barrier due to the low Ge concentration at the emitter-base junction, and then experience an accelerating field across the base region due to the increasing Ge content deeper into the base region. The low Ge content at the emitter-base junction increases the electron injection into the base, thus increasing the current gain. The Ge grading in the base region has the effect of speeding the transport of electrons across the device, resulting in reduced transit time through the base, which is of particular importance in scaling the device to a higher-speed performance. Such a desired Ge grading can be readily created by time-dependent programming of the Ge precursor flows during the SiGe film deposition.
However, when the strain in the pseudomorphically grown SiGe film reaches a critical level, either due to increase of the SiGe film thickness or increase of the Ge content, it can no longer be contained by elastic energy stored in the distorted SiGe crystal structure. Instead, a portion of the strain will be relaxed through generation of misfit dislocations in the heteroepitaxial interface. Therefore, for a SiGe film of a specific Ge content, there exists a “critical thickness,” defined as the maximum thickness for the pseudomorphic growth of the SiGe film, below which the strain caused by lattice mismatch between Si and Ge is contained by elastic energy stored in crystal lattice distortion, and above which a portion of the strain is relaxed through generation of misfit dislocations in the heteroepitaxial interface. Similarly, for a SiGe film of a specific thickness, there exists a “critical Ge content,” which is defined as the maximum germanium content that can be incorporated into the pseudomorphic SiGe film, below which the strain caused by lattice mismatch between Si and Ge is contained by elastic energy stored in crystal lattice distortion, and above which a portion of the strain is relaxed through generation of misfit dislocations in the heteroepitaxial interface.
Dislocation defects originated from strain relaxation are electrically active and can cause increased carrier scattering, carrier trapping, and carrier recombination. Therefore, in the past, the Ge content and total thickness of a SiGe base layer were carefully designed not to exceed the critical values, in order to avoid formation of dislocation defects in the device structure.
Recent aggressive scaling of the SiGe HBT devices in both the vertical and lateral directions has led to significant reductions in device dimensions, including significant reduction in the base layer thickness. Further, recent high-frequency measurements indicate that carriers traveling through ultra-thin base layers of high-performance HBTs (e.g., having a thickness of not more than about 100 nm) have already reached a saturation velocity at the today's aggressive Ge grading. In other words, increased Ge grading in the ultra-thin base layers does not yield further improvements in carrier velocity.
As a result, state-of-the-art SiGe-based HBT devices (see Khater et al., “SiGe HBT Technology with fMax/fT=350/300 GHz and Gate Delay Below 3.3 ps,” IEEE Electron Devices Meeting IEDM Technical Digest, 13-15 Dec. 2004 pp. 247-250) have base layers with Ge content and thickness that are well below the critical values.